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Lawsuit: Disabled protesters were barred from Capitol lawn event

Disabled protesters file lawsuit,

A small group is kept behind barriers as they protest over various concerns outside the celebration of 25 years of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) at the Capitol in Lansing on Sept. 17, 2015.(Photo: Rod Sanford / Lansing State Jour / Rod Sanford, Lansing State Jour, Rod Sanford | Lansing State Jour)

LANSING - Seven demonstrators — six of them disabled — filed a federal lawsuit Friday against Michigan State Police officers and organizers of a 2015 Americans with Disabilities Act anniversary celebration at the Capitol, where blind activist Joe Harcz was arrested for obstructing police.

The criminal charge against Harcz was dismissed last year. He and the other plaintiffs say their constitutional rights to free speech and equal protection under the law were violated when they were barred from the outdoor event, held on the Capitol lawn on Sept. 17, 2015.

"The Michigan State Police and Capitol personnel – having agreed ahead of time with two non-profit organizations hosting the event … to keep plaintiffs out – barred (their) entry," the suit alleges. They "wanted to suppress plaintiffs' speech and prevent them from expressing disagreement with the messages advanced by the event's organizers," the suit alleges.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, seeks legal fees and costs and unspecified damages.

Defendants in the lawsuit are nine Michigan State Police officers, the former Capitol facilities director, and two non-profit organizations that helped organize the 25th anniversary ADA event — the Michigan Association of Centers for Independent Living and the Capital Area Center for Independent Living.

The state police were "reviewing it and it would be premature for me to comment on the allegations in the complaint," spokeswoman Shanon Banner said. An e-mail to the Michigan Association of Centers for Independent Living was not immediately returned Monday. A spokeswoman for the Capital Area Center for Independent Living had no immediate comment.

Harcz, 64, of Mt. Morris Township, was arrested when he tried to cross a police barricade to enter the event, after police identified him as a protester they believed was intent on disrupting it. Harcz, who organizers confirmed was a member of one of the committees that planned the celebration, was charged with resisting and obstructing police, a 2-year felony. Minutes before his trial was scheduled to begin in August, Ingham County prosecutors dismissed the charge.

Joe Harcz (left) and his attorney Brian Kamar during a hearing on Oct. 16, 2015 at Lansing district court. Harcz is a blind activist who was arrested at a Sept. 17, 2015 at a Americans with Disabilities celebration at the Michigan Capitol in Lansing.(Photo: Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press)

"For more than 25 years, I've fought for the Americans with Disabilities Act to be implemented, and on that very day I was kept out of our very own celebration," Harcz said Friday.

Although the plaintiffs wanted to celebrate the ADA anniversary, they "harbored serious concerns about several aspects of the event, including private sponsorship of the event by a company that paid disabled employees less than minimum wage," and the fact the venue for the event, the Capitol Building, was itself not fully ADA-compliant, the suit alleges.

The suit includes counts of false arrest, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution on behalf of Harcz. But the other plaintiff demonstrators, who were not arrested, allege their rights were also violated by being kept away from the ADA celebration.

Protesters Mark Eagle, Terry Eagle, David Robinson, and Joseph Sontag, who are all legally blind; Eleanor Carter, who uses a wheeled cart to help walk; and her husband Brian Dian, allege they were deprived of their First Amendment rights to free speech and their Fourth Amendment rights to equal protection under the law.

"Literally, the police officers formed a wall with their bodies, later supplemented by metal barricades, to deny plaintiffs access and prevent them from participating in the event," the suit alleges.

At a preliminary hearing in 2015, Lansing District Judge Hugh Clarke, Jr. said it was reasonable for police to establish a buffer between ADA celebrants and protesters, and Harcz and the other demonstrators were never told to leave the Capitol grounds, only to stay in a certain area, a distance from the ADA celebration.

But Julie Porter, a Chicago attorney representing the plaintiffs, said Harcz and the other defendants weren't even given a chance to join the event. They were instead singled out and kept away on the basis of the views that organizers and police perceived them to espouse. "This was really surprising and completely wrong," Porter told the Free Press Friday.

Porter points to a 2015 ruling by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a case involving Wayne County and a group called Bible Believers. The court ruled officials violated the rights of Christian evangelists by keeping them from preaching and handing out leaflets at the Arab International Festival in Dearborn, which draws significant numbers of Muslims.

The court said "it is easy to understand Dearborn's desire to host a joyous festival celebrating the city's Arab heritage in an atmosphere of hate and negative influences." However, "the answer to disagreeable speech if not violent retaliation by offended listeners or ratification of the heckler's veto through threat of arrest by the police."

The ADA, passed in 1990, prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in jobs, schools, transportation, and public and private places that are open to the public.

"I want to send a message that they cannot continue to suppress the First Amendment rights of people with disabilities, and no one should be treated the way they treated us," Canter said Monday.